Androgyne
An androgyne is a person who is both feminine and masculine at the same time. Some androgynes have adopted an androgynous psychological gender identity, while some may still be questioning their gender or live with the social gender identity assigned to them at birth. Society currently recognizes no gender roles for androgynes, but if enough androgynes claim a common social identity then they may be able to build a gender role between those of man and woman. Many androgynes are cissexual and mixedgender/transgender: they feel happy in their bodies but they wish to be considered a gender of their own, different from the one they were assigned to by their society, without them being crossdressers, albeit they may use some clothes of the other sex to communicate their mixed-gender status. The term mixed-gender may be used by some to avoid a reference to the gender binary, while other similar terms are multigender, polygender, and pangender. Some androgynes may also identify as genderqueer, gender benders, or gender fuckers, particularly if they are active in social activism against the gender binary. While androgynes may express more femininity or masculinity from day to day due to their mood or societal expectations, they generally don't switch between distinct masculine and feminine personas as bigenders do. Thus, an androgyne is a person with a single gender that combines feminity with masculinity, while bigenders have two different genders (one feminine, one masculine). An androgyne is a third gender distinct from a man or a woman, but at the same time both man and woman. If we understand the term transgender as encompassing all sex and gender combinations not embraced by society (currently only male men and female women), then androgynes are within the transgender spectrum and specifically somewhere in the middle of it. In terms of body, androgynes may be male or female, and sometimes intersex (and their intersexuality might be visible, with intersex genitalia, or invisible, with various combinations of chromosomes or other sex characteristics). A male androgyne (or male-bodied androgyne) is an androgyne with a male body, while a female androgyne has a female body (the word male/female refers to body while the word androgyne refers to psychological gender identity). An''' intersexual androgyne''' has an visibly intersex body. Those whose intersexuality is invisible might wish to describe themselves in any way they feel more comfortable with. Transition and Social Roles Some androgynes are comfortable with their natural body, but some may wish to change it with hormones, surgery, or other technological means just as transsexual people do. But more often than not, androgynes accept their natural body and only wish to have had the body of the other sex as well or specific parts of it. This wish sometimes can be severe and can lead to periods of intense gender dysphoria or transsexual feelings. Some androgynes may proceed with transsexual transition and a few may regret it later, while some manage to live with their new body, albeit they may choose not to adopt all characteristics of their new social gender role. The perfect technological body changes for androgynes should be reversible and allow the androgyne switch back and forth between the two sexes. In terms of social gender roles, most androgynes feel various degrees of uncomfort with the social expectations of the gender binary. Androgynes usually want to have a social role which reflects their combination of feminity and masculinity. Androgynes are pretty diverse, and their particular mix of feminity and masculinity can fall into three ranges: femandrogynes are androgynes who have more feminity than masculinity (say, 75%-25%), butchandrogynes have more masculinity than feminity (say, 25%-75%), and versandrogynes (versatile androgynes) or neutrandrogynes (neutral androgynes) have an equal mix of feminity and masculinity (say, 50%-50%). These neologisms can be shortened to femandro, butchandro, and versandro or neutrandro. Sexuality The sexuality of androgynes is also very diverse: some are gynephiles (they like women), some are androphile (they like men), some are bisexual or pansexual and a few can be asexual or aromantic. Those who like women may identify as lesbians, even if their body is male (see also: male lesbian). Some androgynes may have a sexual or romantic preference for other androgynes, either of the same, of the other sex, or of either sex. While a male lesbian femandrogyne may be mistaken for a heterosexual man (if their sexuality is obvious) they are in fact out of heteronormativity since they're to a large degree same-gender loving: that is, they like people of the other sex (females) but of a gender very similar to them (women), and if they are fully same-gender loving they may seek female femandrogynes who like males. There is no correlation between androgyny and dominance or submissiveness in sexual relations (so it's possible for a femandrogyne to be a top). Legal Issues The legal gender of androgynes is usually that assigned to them based on their body type (so male androgynes are legally recognized as men, and female androgynes as women). However, this assignment is wrong as it was based on the mistaken assumption of the doctors that anatomical sex and gender is the same thing. Social Issues Androgynes, like transgenderists and transsexuals who have not undergone surgery (pre-op or non-op), may feel uncomfortable using gender-segregated toilets: while a transsexual identifies as a gender in the gender binary (even if they're not legally recognized as such) and therefore psychologically accept the toilet that matches their gender identity, an androgyne feels different from men and women and therefore no toilet facility fully matches their gender identity, albeit they usually go to the toilet assigned to their legal gender due to social pressure. Androgynes and Health There is no inherent corellation between mental health problems and androgyny (the state of being an androgyne), but many androgynes may suffer from depression or other issues because of the negative experiences associated with social rejection. Androgynes may sometimes be mistaken for gay men or lesbian women and may face homophobia or even violent attacks. Some androgynes who are stigmatized due to social rejection may become asocial and feel lonely, to the point of refusing to hold a job (since it's impossible to separate gender from social interaction at work, and few to no employers are willing to hire androgynes), or may refuse to enter into sexual or romantic relationships which they may perceive as a threat to their gender identity since their significant other(s) would probably expect them to live up to the social expectations of their legal gender. Presentation The gender expression and fashion tastes of androgynes can be very diverse: normally an androgyne doesn't feel fully man or fully woman but a mix of two and therefore it would be reasonable to expect androgynes to combine men's with women's clothes or masculine with feminine fashion styles. However, social pressure may force an androgyne to adopt only the wardrobe of men or women. Androgynous fashion and unisex fashion is not the same as androgyny or being an androgyne: people of any gender may wish to adopt the androgynous fashion, but this doesn't make them androgynes in terms of gender. Being an androgyne is different than being a cross-dresser or a transvestite, but many androgynes may combine clothes of both sexes to express their androgyny, while a few androgynes may also be cross-dressers, transvestites, drag kings or drag queens but this status is not inherently associated with their androgyny. Many androgynes can be present in the same genetic family: an androgyne can be the biological parent of another androgyne, and they may even be the same kind of androgyne (e.g. femandrogynes). This suggests that androgyny is genetic.